Six Egyptian workers have been abducted in separate incidents in and around Baghdad over the last two days, according to the Egyptian Embassy.
Two were kidnapped in the city, while the others were seized outside the capital on Wednesday night, said an Egyptian Embassy official.
Police said today that two Egyptians were snatched from their office in the exclusive Harthiya neighbourhood late last night, by gunmen who overpowered and tied up their guards.
The pair, who worked for the firm that runs the Baghdad mobile phone network, were taken away in a black BMW.
More than 100 foreign hostages have been seized since April. Most have been released but around 30 have been killed.
Last week, two Americans and a Briton were snatched from their home in Baghdad by armed men. A group led by Washington's top foe in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, beheaded the Americans, Mr Eugene Armstrong and Mr Jack Hensley, and posted video footage of the killings on the Internet.
The group says it will also kill Briton Mr Kenneth Bigley (62) unless all Iraqi women are freed from US-run jails.
Earlier this month, gunmen kidnapped two women Italian aid workers in broad daylight in Baghdad. Internet statements from two guerrilla groups say they have been killed, but Italy's government and some Muslin scholars have dismissed the claims as unreliable.
Until this month, almost all the kidnapped foreigners were snatched on Iraq's dangerous roads. But the capture of foreigners in Baghdad, seemingly carefully planned, is an escalation that has alarmed foreign embassies and firms in Iraq.
Mortars exploded near the Italian Embassy in the capital today, slightly wounding three Iraqis.